The Hate U Give – Book Review

Synopsis:

Sixteen-year-old Starr lives in two worlds: the poor neighbourhood where she was born and raised and her posh high school in the suburbs. The uneasy balance between them is shattered when Starr is the only witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend, Khalil, by a police officer. Now what Starr says could destroy her community. It could also get her killed.
Inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, this is a powerful and gripping YA novel about one girl’s struggle for justice.

Review:

I have attempted to write this review more times than I can count since finishing the book back in April. So I thought maybe the easiest way to go about it was to break it down a little!

Starr: This is a very character driven book and you can really tell thats where the author has put alot of her passion and energy. Reading Starr’s story doesn’t feel like your reading fiction not only because her experiences reflect that of so many others but because she has been written so well. Her journey throughout the book is really beautiful to read her thoughts and attitudes are being shaped in such a strong way. At the beginning of the book she appears to be a girl who is perhaps not necessarily embarassed but definitely reserved about her full personality. By the end of the book she is a strong woman with fire in her belly and passion in her heart to stand up and be her complete self and fight for justice.

Family: I found this book to be really refreshing with it’s family dynamic. The author doesn’t try and portray them as absolutely perfect and always 100% supportive nor does she try to portray them as damaged beyond repair and uncaring for each other. Both are traps I feel almost all YA authors fall into. This family were just written as a normal family there for each other when they need to be but firm when necessary. Every single person in this family felt like a real person and like everything down to little quirks had been thought about and brought to light naturally. The whole book is a beautiful example of showing and not telling.

Friends: Starr’s relationship with her friends and her boyfriend was something that really brought to light the changes she went through. For the most part it’s hard to see why she keeps so much of herself and her personality private. Her boyfriend and best friend are incredibly accepting of her and her different background. But at school she is also around people who she thinks are friends that arent willing to open their minds to what is really happening and you can see that is the biggest reason she holds back. Starr seems to split herself in the beginning between her friends at school and her friends in her neighbourhood. In my opinion its this split and the slow shift in the dynamics that really moves the book along rather than the plot. In a lot of ways it feels like a coming of age story because of how she learns to cope with and bring together her two worlds.

Themes: The book heavily focus on culture divides, the black lives matter movement and how both citizens and police are viewed in the media after the police shoot an unarmed POC. I think these themes and events were written incredibly well and provoked a lot of questions and a lot of anger. I think it speaks volumes for the talent, passion and understanding of the author to be able to tackle sensitive subjects like this. It felt very much real and not like it has been overly dramatised for effect.

Plot: To be honest it didnt really feel like there was a plot to this book. It just felt like a series of events strung together till a conclusion was gained. Thats not to say the book wasn’t interesting or compelling to read it just didnt seem to have much of a structure to it. I have a theory that this might be because all the focus was on character development and the themes. She covered these areas so well that I’m not overly dissapointed by the lack of structure.

Overall: I hope I’ve made it pretty obvious I really loved this book since it has taken me numerous attempts to write this review. Despite my attempts I’m still not happy and don’t feel I have done this book justice! I think its an important book for people of most ages to pick up and get a good idea of some of the grittier more realistic scenarios that happen regularly over in the states.